


Fake It

by QueenPotatos



Category: Free!
Genre: Fake Dating, M/M, Style 5, but not what you think, written for rinharu week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 01:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17633288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos
Summary: Style 5 has been a fairly popular boys band for the last few years; but inescapably fame never lasts, and Miho, their manager, is forced to use the last string of her imagination to find a solution when her best protégés are in a trough.That's when her evil mind pauses her eyes on a Tabloid, and suddenly it clicks.They need a scandal.





	Fake It

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Rin !!  
> I realize I had this piece i did for rhweek that I forgot to post t_t gomen t_t but anyway here it is.  
> It's awfully cheesy for my standard so be careful. I should put a warning.  
> The title is from [Perfume's song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKMaFR2mtU)

 

* * *

 

There was absolutely no way of squeezing it around and make it look better that it actually was. Sales were dropping, and even the new outfits or interviews didn't manage to reverse the trend. Miho walked to the store and the magazines weren’t any better. Style 5 was not as popular as it used to be a couple of years ago when they released their first album. What caused the evil? Was it that new boys band? Were their songs better? No, everything was the same garbage anyway.

She took one of the magazine, its front page full of the Kirishima’s brothers.

That’s when her most terrible idea popped into her mind.

“Goro!” She exclaimed as she entered his office. “Sales are dropping!”

“Indeed, sales are dropping.”

“We need a plan!”

“We need a plan.” He looked up from his journal. “You have a plan?”

He swore he had never seen Miho smiled so devilishly. She smashed the Kirishima’s front page in front of his face. “People want this.”

“Want what?”

“Scoop, scandals, gossips. We need to do better than a perfect bromance, we need the real deal.”

“The real deal?”

“The real deal.” Miho had never looked so serious in her entire life, her job and leading band was on the line. “We need a romance.”

Goro frowned and got up from his desk. “A romance?”

“What are you, a parrot? Stop repeating after me and call the boys. We need something to feed the tabloids. No one really listens to music anymore, otherwise they wouldn’t go to our concerts. The boys sell.”

She left him to literally run to her office and start her computer. “What are you doing?” He asked, the phone against his ears as he typed the first number.

“Looking at that fan website to see who are the most popular of our boys so we sell the most.”

Goro sighed, wondering if this was really a good idea. “I wonder if the boys are going to be okay with it.”

“They won’t have the choice. Plus, it’s not like they need to…be together. Fans don’t need a lot to speculate, I’m sure a couple of chosen words in the good ears and a picture of hands being held will do the charm.”

And indeed, it would work like wonder, a little bit too well for everyone’s sake.

 

 

The boys joined their headquarters a couple of hours later after the show still wearing their suits. Rei and Rin were on the phone while Makoto was anxiously waiting for the door to open to whatever their manager had prepared for them.

“Truth is, we’re not fulling up anymore.” He said, but his words reached none ears but his own as Nagisa was busy buying a high energy drink and Haru lost in his own world.

The door slammed opened. “Come in!” Miho ordered.

The five of them sat ramrod straight on the sofa next to her and relaxed when she exposed her plan – everyone but Rin. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, his palm getting all sweat, and things turned even worse when Miho announced the fake couple had to concern the leader of the group.

Which meant Haru.

Cold sweat ran down his spine, he had troubled breathing through his nose. Calm down, he repeated like a mantra, this is going to be fine, you have 3 chance out of 4 to be spared, just wish upon your good star.

Rin let out the heavy breath he had been holding the all time when Miho announced Makoto would take the role of Haru’s fake lover. Suddenly it was as if all the blood had rushed back to his limbs and brain and he started to feel dizzy. He missed half of the details of how this farce would expose itself on the public and thought. It was better that way. What would they had done anyway, hold hands? Lock eyes and smile in front of the camera? Kiss on stage? Just thinking about it made Rin feel hot, and by the temperature of his cheeks he knew he was blushing at the simple idea.

No really, it was for the best, all for the best. He wouldn’t have handle faking it, since his feelings for Haru were real, and there was no way he would have let him found out that way.

  

The following week happened in a blur. It was like Miho had predicted, a simple picture sparked things off with a disconcerting facility that said a lot about their business assets. Rin grimaced when he spotted the tabloids’ front pages the first time. Style 5 was everywhere, but not for their music.

_‘Style 5 : an unexpected idyll?’_

_‘Style 5 : You’ll never guess what we found out!’_

_‘The shocking truth about Style 5!’_

Big letters, no shame, no privacy – when did they have any to begin with?

_‘Haru and Makoto (Style 5) : they are together!!!’_

This one was probably the worst. It wasn’t a particularly detail that initiated the soon to be numerous cracks on his heart, it was the whole picture – said picture, anodyne and innocent of two friends naturally holding hands, trying not so well to hide it, and it’s all in the ease these two had when they’re together. Rin understood why people would buy it just by looking. Of course they didn’t know Haru and Makoto like he did, didn’t know they were like brothers more than anything else and yet it hurt, the title hurt. They are together.

To think it could have been him.

To think it could have been re-

Rin shook his head and bought the magazine out of rage, more than anything.

 

Sales got better. That’s the good and the worse part of it in the long run. Because now, wherever they went, people asked for Haru and Makoto interview alone. Rin faked a smile each time they were asked to walk away, and some times he stole a glance toward Haru to catch him looking back.

There were moments like this, that seemed like holding time for him, moment when he thought he saw for one second everything he wanted to see in Haru’s eyes – longing, want, love, sadness, worry, sorrow, all in the wrong order – and he imagined some times their fingertips brushing by; but then he blinked and Haru was looking away already, so quickly he questioned if he had ever looked back at all.

He bought the tabloids each time they were out. He had at least fifteen of them by the end of the month. There were nothing much on them, just pictures of Haru and Makoto not so different daily life but with a wrong captions. They had done so much worse in the past, with Rin’s arm always somewhere near Haru’s shoulder, cocky smiles and the way they used to walk too close to the other. It had stopped suddenly. Rin couldn’t say who was the one who did first.

It turned into an obsession. He’s reading a fake idyll that looked a bit too much like his ideal idyll. It’s all fake, he told himself. Everything was fake.

 

In the middle of December they were invited to a charity concert, along with other bands and celebrities – along with the Mermaid Lovers by whom the whole thing started. They were supposed to sing a couple of songs and answered a couple of question on stage.

Except this time Rin didn’t make it. Except this time they had only a few seconds and they asked about _them_. He had never run out of stage, he never thought he would never _ever_ but his legs worked on his own. How the hell…how the hell was he going to explain that?

He hid behind the stage, next to the thick red curtain and brought his hand to his mouth, scared he might throw up. It never came. The sickness remained in his stomach until he heard the cheering from the crowd and then the applauses. Rin felt his legs giving up, he slid along the wall and sat there for minutes, his eyes lost on the floor and his ears filled with the houra from the public. And when he thought this couldn’t go worse,

“Rin!”

He raised his head, only to face Haru.

“Rin!” He shouted again and ran to him. He stopped a feet away only. He was standing too close. “…We were looking for you.”

Of course they would, he had basically run for his life in the middle of their show.

“Are you feeling alright? Your rhythm was off.”

Haru was right about that. Their performance had been the worst they had had in a long while.

He hated that Haru looked concerned.

“You’re…you know you’re the pillar of the group, right?” Haru said, to his greatest surprise, “You’re the rhythm, everyone is following you.”

Haru knelt before him, Rin avoided his gaze.

“Rin…tell me…”

It had never been like this. It had never been this tense between them. Rin wanted nothing but to run away again, far far _far_ from everything and especially, far from Haru, before he got to see the reason behind his sudden downturn. Haru wasn’t any better it seemed, since he couldn’t quite figure out how to ask Rin what he wanted to ask him.

“Why did you…you…you looked…happy when…when Miho said Makoto would play the role with me.”

His world left him bemused. Rin had been a lot of things at that moment, but he had certainly never felt happy. That was odd, where did Haru get that idea?

“It was for the best, wasn’t it? Look how it’s working. Like wonders. You both look so natural.”

He didn’t mean to sound so sour.

“It’s because we’re not doing anything. It’s nothing but a smokescreen.”

“Yeah, figures.”

“Rin.”

Haru took his hands into his and said no more. He didn’t need to. His eyes spoke for him, or at least Rin thought they did, but because he was in love with him he might be seeing the reality he wanted to see desperately. He’s so in love, and Haru’s eyes screamed ‘I miss you’, and Rin was almost tempted to say he missed him too. He felt warm all over his body, warmth spreading from his heart and chest and from the place Haru’s hands touched his and for a different reason it’s the second time today that Rin felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“I thought-“

“Haru! Rin! There you are!”

Nagisa found them a second too soon.

 

Things get even more strange after that night.

Haru was rigid every time Rin was in the same place. As if he didn’t know how to act around him anymore when it used to be so simple. Every time they spoke, words were broken, forced, unnatural; yet Haru seemed to be looking at him each time Rin was not, and he had taken the bad habit of biting on how lower lip for only god knew what trivial reasons.

Rin couldn’t see all of it, of course, but someone else did.

 

 

A weird phenomenon happened the week before Christmas. It was as if Rin’s life had been taken from him and rewritten by someone else, someone who didn’t have his best interest in mind, as well as his heart condition it seemed. It was a known fact that Rin cried easily, be it in theatre, during shows, even on stage when the group performance was perfectly executed – which was, since the fake dating event, something that had not happened at all. So when he saw his crying face instead of Haru and Makoto being perfect boyfriend on the frontpage, he didn’t realize right away how ugly things were turning.

He read the title a couple of second later.

_‘Style 5 : the impossible love?’_

_‘Style 5 : Rin’s despair!’_

_‘Style 5 : one man’s loss is another man’s gain…poor Rin!’_

Inside, Rin was fuming. On top of being the exact representation of what he was feeling, this picture had nothing to do with the fake dating thing – it was just a good movie for fuck sake and everyone knew it! They were just inventing a story to sell more magazines! It was just as fake as all the previous covers.

But at the same time, it was the truth.

Rin sank in his bath, wondering if Haru had seen these covers or if he had cared at all about the others as well at some point in this madness. Sure, sales had never been better, but the unity of the group suffered from it and everyone but Miho could feel it – worse, maybe she felt it but chose to ignore until the sales dropped again, which made him wonder how long this farce was supposed to last.

The moment he saw him, Rin knew he had seen it to.

“Don’t worry,” Rin bit with spite, something he hadn’t meant at all again, it was out of his mouth before he could think about it, “It’s all fake, just like your fake love story.”

Haru looked confused, as if he didn’t know how he was supposed to feel, and Rin didn’t either. How did he want Haru to feel?

“It’s all fake.” Haru repeated.

“Yeah. I had just watched a sad movie that’s all.”

“You know it’s all fake, right?”

“Hn?” Rin turned around to face Haru again. Of course he knew. It was just herculeanly hard to watch the man he loved with someone else every time he went outside or a journalist opened his mouth.

“For all it’s worth, I don’t give a fuck. You can do what you want. We’re big boys.”

For a moment Rin didn’t recognize himself. He didn’t know what Haru was feeling, but he was jealous, and he just wanted to hurt Haru so that he’d know for sure what the other was feeling. The words took half a second to split out of his mouth and he regretted them the second after but the deed was done. Once something was said, it was difficult to take it back.

 

* * *

 

 

Makoto started to worry the moment Haru started to sing out of the tune.

It had never happened before, not when they were in kindergarten, not once during their tours. Haru loved to sing, he probably sang in his mother’s belly and it had never been out of the tune-

He found him curled into a ball behind their dressing room just before the Christmas show. “I can’t do it.” He said. “I can’t do it anymore.”

Makoto knew they had barely spoken to each other since the incident with Rin. Actually, Haru had barely talked since that day, it was like he had lost his voice. His hands were shaking against his arms. He couldn’t do it, not single note, not a single second pretending to love the wrong person.

Makoto sighed and sat next to him. “We should talk to Miho. It’s getting out of hand.”

Haru hid his face into his arms. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Makoto put his hand on his shoulder. “It’s not like you can control it. It’s a shame she picked the wrong person from the start.”

“Was it really?” Haru’s voice was strangled by a dry sob. “Did you see how content he was when she didn’t choose him?”

When his eyes resurfaced they were filled with lover’s tears.

“Do you think it was fake? What we had before? Did I make it up all in my mind because I wanted it to be true?”

Makoto was at loss of words. Even if he was certain their love was pure and true, they had to realize it on their own in order to make it work. He did the best thing he knew and pulled Haru into his lap, consoling his friend in his wide arms.

“Hey, Haru, Mako-“

Rin, for the best or worse, arrived at that exact moment.

“…Sorry to interrupt.” And he closed the door behind him.

Makoto felt Haru go rigid against his chest before he could open his mouth. “You didn’t interrupt anything!” He shouted, but too late. He stood up, heartbroken to leave Haru alone but someone needed to run after him and Haru was definitely not going to.

The door opened before him. Unfortunately, it was only Miho. “What’s happening? What’s this racket? Haru? Are you alright?”

“Obviously not!” Makoto shouted, exasperated.

Miho blinked, bemused by Makoto’s sudden burst, he who was always calm and reserved. “What’s the problem?” She asked.

“You picked the wrong person!”

He rushed past her, “Rin!” he called out. He was just standing still by the end of the corridor, his shoulders tensed; he had heard him shout – the whole facility heard him shout. Makoto took another step forward when he was stopped by none but Haru’s hand, firm and unquivering on his elbow. “It’s alright,” Haru murmured, “It’s alright.”

Makoto wasn’t really sure of how things were going to turn out, these two being just as explosive as complementary to each other’s, something that always happened when strong feelings were involved.  

Haru walked to Rin who had remained impassive. He tugged in his wrist. “Rin, turn around.”

He tugged harder when Rin still didn’t move. It took him a moment, a second to bite back his tears, another to swallow the dignity he had left, to turn his heels and face him. His eyes were red and his cheeks wet. Haru felt his heart sank into the depth of his stomach.

“I need you to tell me. I don’t know anything anymore. I can’t perceive the truth from the lies.” Haru begged. “Rin, was it all fake? You and me, the thing we had…was it all in my head, was it just my imagination?”

Rin remained still as a stone, frozen when Haru boldly took him in his embrace and rest his forehead on the crook of his neck.

“You never answered me. Why did you look happy when Miho chose Makoto? Wouldn’t it have it great to finally do all those things together? For a second I had hoped it would open a door for us, that I would dare more, stop being scared to ruin it all. But you looked so happy when…” Haru hugged him closer to his chest. “Does it really feel so horrible to pretend to be happy with me?”

An ugly sob left Rin’s lips and Haru hold him tighter. “You…stupid…head…How could I even begin to pretend with you?” He ran his fingers against Haru’s skull when he heard him sobbing against his neck. “I was so scared you’ll find out my feelings, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to control myself.”

Miho placed her hand in front of her mouth. “Oh, god. I picked the wrong person.”

Makoto mentally facepalmed.

“Rin…I’m sorry if I hurt you.” Haru took his head out of its comfortable nest to look back at Rin. “I never meant to.”

“I know. I knew it was all fake…” Tears streamed down his face as he linked their forehead. “But it was so hard to watch. It turned me insane. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Haru wiped out the tears with his thumbs. “You never left my thoughts, never.”

Rin smiled shyly and slowly, never leaving Haru’s bright blue eyes out of his sight, he leaned in and captured Haru’s lips with his own. They tasted like salt and the cherry lipsticks they used on stage something like what he thought happiness should taste like.

They heard clapping on the other end of the corridor. Rei was crying of joy while Nagisa had his hands on his hips. “About time!” he almost scolded them.

They both smiled with their heads down, lost in happiness and relief. The whole fake dating thing was over, at long last.

Was it?

 

 

The next day, Rin walked past the kiosque. His heart skipped a beat. He took the first tabloid he found.

_‘Style 5 : Haru, unfaithful??’_

_‘Style 5 : the end of the dream?’_

_‘The End of Style 5 : the kiss of contention!’_

From her desk, Miho was laughing devilishly, along with Satan whom she had sold her soul to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I wrote that.  
> Follow me on [Twitter ](https://twitter.com/doctor_queenie)or [Tumblr](http://doctor-queenie.tumblr.com/) !


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